The Japanese town of Taiji’s controversial dolphin hunt is now in its ninth day, and fishermen have caught at least seven bottlenose dolphins so far in a hunting season expected to last until March 2022.

The hunt, operated by the Isana Fishermen's Association, has a catch quota of 1,849 dolphins from nine species that the Japanese government has permitted to be killed or captured this season. They include bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, melon-headed whales, and Risso’s dolphins.

Some are caught and sold to marine parks and dolphinariums, mainly in Japan and China, and several hundred are slaughtered for meat, according to the Dolphin Project, a California-based advocacy group. (Over the past several years, hunters have caught several hundred fewer dolphins